Characters / Superboy

(aka: Superman Conner Kent)

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Subject 13

Kon-El

Conner Kent

First Appearance: Adventures of Superman #500 (June, 1993)

^{Click here to see Kon's Teen Titans outfit:}

After the early 1990s' The Death of Superman storyline, a new version of Superboy came into existence—this one a teenage clone artificially created by Project Cadmus. The character first appeared in The Adventures of Superman #500 (June, 1993), created by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett. Exactly who he is a clone of was retconned, but he is currently a combination of Superman and Lex Luthor. This version eventually was befriended by Superman, who gave him an honorary Kryptonian name, "Kon-El"; later, when staying with Ma and Pa Kent (who no longer were dead in Superman's adult years post-Crisis), he also adopted the human name "Conner Kent".

When Superman returned to life, Superboy initially settled in Hawaii and became the state's resident superhero protector. During this period he had several encounters with the (rebooted) Legion of Super-Heroes and became a reserve member, and also briefly joined a team known as the Ravers. Eventually he ended up going back to work at the now-reformed Project Cadmus, and also became a founding member of Young Justice. After his association with Cadmus ended in the aftermath of the Our Worlds at War event, he briefly relocated to Suicide Slum in Metropolis before finally going to live on the Kent farm. Soon after, Young Justice disbanded and he became a member of the Teen Titans. He also had a brief stint as a regular member of the Legion while marooned in the 31st century.

Several alternate versions of Superboy were also seen over the years (including the aforementioned "Pocket Universe" version). The most prominent one is Superboy-Prime, a formerly heroic alternate-Earth Superboy seen in Crisis on Infinite Earths who reappeared in modern continuity as an Evil Twin of Superman/Superboy.

In the late 2000s, DC Comics fought a legal battle with the surviving family of Superman's creators over the rights to Superboy, which due to a quirk of copyright law can be reclaimed by them (though a subsequent ruling has stated that DC can claim rights to the concept of Superboy, the teenage clone of Superman even if the Siegel/Shuster estates have rights to the Superman-as-a-boy version of Superboy). The effect of this lawsuit has been that DC refused to use the name "Superboy", so Kon-El died, Superboy-Prime was called "Superman-Prime", and the Legion Of Super Heroes cartoon stars a "young Superman" rather than Superboy. The lawsuit is not yet over, but DC felt they could use the name again, so Kon-El is back, and Superboy-Prime gets to be called that again.

Kon-El was substantially rebooted following the Cosmic Retcon Flashpoint, in history and personality, to the point where he was essentially an entirely different character. When Superman's pre-Flashpoint history was restored to the timeline in the aftermath of Superman Reborn, Conner was notable for his complete absence. This became a plot point when a future Conner Kent was shown to exist in the "Titans Tomorrow" timeline (which originated pre-Flashpoint) but the present-day Red Robin didn't recognise the name "Conner", with the strong implication that everyone's memories of him had been erased. Conner finally made his return in Young Justice (2019), which revealed he had been marooned in the alternate reality Gemworld during Flashpoint and so had missed the Cosmic Retcon entirely.

• 13 Is Unlucky: Played with. While he's followed by quite a bit of chaos Experiment 13 is actually the luckiest of the attempted Superman clones as 01 through 12 were failed cloning attempts. There are a number of civilians who try to flee when they see him around though due to his Destructive Savior tendencies so at least early on others may feel being around him is bad luck.
• Adaptational Badass: During Convergence, Superboy is placed against three heroes from the Kingdom Come universe: Red Robin, The Flash, and Superman. He takes out the former two easily, and all three are arguably superior to their modern versions (we take a moment to remind readers that, in Kingdom Come, the Flash essentially became the embodiment of the Speed Force).
• Afraid of Doctors: In Geoff Johns' Teen Titans, he and Beast Boy have a phobia of doctors, due to both of them being experimented on as kids.
• Afraid of Needles: Superboy is afraid of needles due to his past as an experimental subject and the fact that it means he has to consciously or has unconsciously lowered his TTK field leaving him vulnerable in order to allow a needle to go through his skin. It was this fear that John's ramped up to make him afraid of doctors entirely.
• Alliance of Alternates:
  • Kon-El teams up with the other versions of Superboy Black Zero had captured to disable Black Zero, who is an evil alternate of the Superboys that were created at Cadmus. Not all of the alternate Superboys are alternate versions of Kon-El as some are young versions of Kal-El and one is a clone of an alternate Supergirl.
  • Kon-El meets and teams up with the Kal-El version Superboy in several post-Crisis storylines, including "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!" and "Hypertension".
• Alliterative Family: When Superman says he considers him family and Superboy finally gets a name the name Kal gives him is Kon-El, which fits nicely with Kal-El and Kara Zor-El.
• Alternate Self: Doomsday Clock reveals that the New 52 Superboy is not Conner Kent, but a completely different clone made on another planet deemed "Earth 52" in an Alternate Universe from "Prime Earth" that this, Pre Flashpoint Superboy, has been brought to. The reason this took so long to figure out was because Doctor Manhattan was screwing with time and space, something that was originally outside of his purview in Watchmen, where he merely experienced time in a non linear fashion, and Manhattan was obliterating anyone who dared investigate his actions, let alone try to stop him.
• Alternate Timeline Ancestry: He and the New 52 Superboy are essentially the same person, despite his lineage coming from Superman and Lex Luthor, while the latter is a clone of a future son of Lois Lane and Superman.
• Amazon Chaser: His love interests include Knockout, Sparx, Triad/Triplicate Girl, Cassandra Cain and Wonder Girl.
• Anxiety Dreams: Several issues of Superboy Vol. 4 start with a dream of Superboy's detailing something he's anxious about, usually with the situation becoming much worse in bizarre ways than what would actually occur which wakes him up.
• Appropriated Appellation: In his early appearances, he insisted on being called Superman. It wasn't until Superman returned from the dead and told Kon that he'd be honored to let Kon use the name "Superboy" that he started to take to it. And even then, the new Superboy told Big Blue, "When I turn 21... watch out".
• Arch-Enemy: Superboy-Prime. He hates Conner, calling him a fake Superboy.
• Artificial Human: Kon-El and many others in Cadmus like the young Newsboys were created by the project and Kon started out as a modified entirely human clone of Paul Westfield before his origin was retconned.
• Attention Whore: He started out doing everything he could to stay in the limelight and on the news for the perfectly good reason that Cadmus would have made him disappear if they could have gotten away with it. They tried to quietly kidnap/kill him despite him making sure the public was well aware of his existence and only stopped when threatened by Superman after Supes had to save the kid.
• Back from the Dead: Killed off in Infinite Crisis, resurrected in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds. Brainiac 5 used the Kryptonian technology that reanimated Superman after he was killed by Doomsday, combined with a lock of Lex Luthor's hair to bring him back to life to help them in the fight against Superboy-Prime and his new Legion of Super-Villains.
• Bald of Evil: In Teen Titans, he shaved his head bald before going on an insane killer rampage and beating up the entire rest of the team. This was due to a mental command which was placed in his brain from after he was cloned in Cadmus.
• Blond, Brunette, Redhead: He once had a Love Dodecahedron between Tana Moon (brunette), Roxy Leech (blonde) and Knockout (redhead).
• Blue Is Heroic: The titular hero Kon-El is associated with the color blue, which wraps around his torso and arms in his costumes.
• Born as an Adult: In his first appearances he appears to be a teen over the age of 15 but is only months old.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: As with his "dad", he's a prime target for this trope. Happened to him when he was with the Young Justice as well as another time when Poison Ivy used him for this purpose. His entire purpose for being created by Lex Luthor was to act as a sleeper agent in the superhero community, and the Black Lanterns attempted to take control of him again. Fortunately, by this time, Superboy had trained himself to retain some measure of control even while brainwashed.
• Broad Strokes: The version of Superboy we see in Convergence is largely based on the late-'90s version where he lived at Cadmus. However, there are a few alterations. Namely, he possesses a smattering of Kryptonian powers that he never possessed during that era: Super-Speed, X-Ray Vision and Freeze Breath, the latter of which was notably the last Kryptonian power he awakened during the Teen Titans era (which itself came much later); possibly justified in that a year has passed under the dome. The Infodump at the end of the book also glosses over exactly whom Superboy is cloned from: while Paul Westfield is mentioned, it's simply stated that he mixed Kryptonian DNA with human, which is quite different from the original story.
• Brought Down to Badass: When he temporarily loses his powers he does not stop being a hero, he just uses gadgets instead.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • During 2015's Convergence event, this version of Superboy (from the era in which he lived at Cadmus and still wore the original costume, earring and shaved fade) returned as part of a multiversal crossover.
  • In Young Justice (2019) the rest of the Core Four realize their friend has been erased from history and set out to find him. They discover Kon on Gemworld after which he rejoins the reformed Young Justice.
  • The one true Conner Kent, not the New 52 Kon-El, is finally returning to the DC Universe and reforming Young Justice with Tim Drake, Bart Allen, and Cassie Sandsmark as part of the new Wonder Comics imprint.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes": "We really need to get a Titans Jet or something. Not that I don't like holding your hand, Robin — but I don't."
• Call to Agriculture: When Conner arrived in Gemworld he became a farmer as well as pretending to be the husband of the widow who took him in after he helped her. He even mentions what Pa Kent said.
• Character Development: Over the years, he grows from an immature, egotistical teen into a mature and responsible young man, particularly after he learned of having Lex Luthor's DNA. Also living with John and Martha Kent turned him into a Nice Guy. Makes a lot of sense since they raised the original Superman as well.
• Chest Insignia: The S-Shield. During one storyarc, Supergirl (Matrix) telekinetically ripped it from his chest (without damaging the costume) because he wasn't behaving like someone who deserved to wear it.
• Chick Magnet: He has attracted Supergirl, Knockout, Tana Moon, Roxy Leech, Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark), Rose Wilson, and Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), plus many unnamed civilians.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Just some examples in Superman/Batman. In Public Enemies (2004), he and Supergirl are caught in a "walls closing in" Death Trap and Conner complains that would have preferred if there was Power Girl with him. On another occasion, he find some sexbots of the female Teen Titans, belonging to the teenage Toyman (not the original villainous version); Conner clearly enjoys them... until Tim Drake destroys them.
  Superboy: I hate you. I hate you more than anyone I've ever known.
• Civvie Spandex: He used to wear a leather jacket over his spandex suit. His post-Infinite Frontier outfit gets it back.
• Clark Kenting: As Conner Kent since he uses the name to finally develop a secret identity but then switches to jeans and a t-shirt, the same thing he wears as the civilian Conner, for his supersuit.
• Clone Angst: He falls into this occasionally, after several years of being Totally Radical.
• Clothing Damage: Superboy failing to properly protect his jacket with his TTK causes a running gag where the thing is constantly destroyed, his underlying costume is also damaged rather frequently.
• Comic-Book Time: One story during Reign of the Supermen specifically references Bill Clinton as POTUS. Furthermore, in the time since he was created, babies born within the same month have grown up into adults.
• Commonality Connection: Conner Kent and Cassie Sandsmark are both happy go lucky humans kids with, a less than ideal familial structure, who were gifted with super human abilities from less than savory sources, and are more doted on by that which they are named after then their starting family or would be benefactors. The difference being that Cassie was actively seeking power out while Conner had no choice. They're then both retconned into moody half human hybrids, Cassie being forced to be moody by the conduit keeping her powers from waning. They eventually end up dating.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He doesn’t clock in as much time as Tim does but he has been this for Bart from time to time.
• Copied the Morals, Too: This version of Superboy was retconned to be a sleeper clone created by Lex Luthor using a combination of his own DNA as well as Superman's. Despite being conditioned to obey Luthor, Superboy desired to be a hero like Superman and rejected Luthor's purpose for him.
• Costume Copycat: Kal-El Superboy initially accuses Kon-El Superboy of such in their Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! crossover meeting in Superboy #8, before learning the truth about what's going on.
• Darker and Edgier: Once he learned that he was made with Lex Luthor's DNA, the cocky, brash hero got much angstier.
• Dead Guy Junior: Kal-El got the name Kon-El from a Kryptonian friend and honorary cousin of Jor-El's that died with the planet.
• Depending on the Writer: Is Conner a lithe, ditzy, fun loving Agent Peacock of questionable fashion sense with an affection for surfing? Or is he a tiny t shirt wearing scowling, introspective jock? He transitioned from the first to the next without warning, and has sense flipped back and forth between them. The Rebirth Young Justice series has him looking most like the former, but with the latter's biceps.
• Destructive Saviour: Especially in his early years. He destroys so many cars and street tops that the people of Hawaii are not immediately concerned when he goes missing, thinking it might be a good thing for the islands. He was also kicked out of school after a fight on campus destroyed a good portion of it.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: "Y'know — like Superman? The Last Son of Krypton! Feared and respected across the universe! C'mon — that's supposed to intimidate you! Work with me here!"
• Evil Knockoff: Match, who is kind of a clone of this clone.
• Eye Beams: He eventually develops Kryptonian heat vision.
• Fad Super: He was created to be a Totally Radical reimagining of the "kid Superman" concept.
  • In his debut, he had a buzzcut fade, a hoop earring, a leather jacket (which nearly every hero had at the time), sunglasses, and a costume that invoked Too Many Belts. He of course, used hip slang and made constant references to pop culture.
  • His next costume gave his jacket a new design with a red-and-blue color scheme, redesigned his earring and shades, gave him a more fashionable haircut and replaced his large-cuffed gloves with streamlined fingerless gloves. His slang got slightly toned down as well, but was still in use.
  • The third costume (which he kept up until the reboot of the New 52) was an extensive overhaul. It ditched the jacket, skintight costume, earring, shades and Totally Radical attitude (the Civvie Spandex look took a heavy turn toward "civvie", with a t-shirt and jeans). Instead, he became more dark, brooding, and angsty, which became popular around the mid-2000s.
  • Then going full circle, his Post Infinite Frontier look returns to a mixture of his first two outfits, gaining back the jacket with spandex look and his buzzcut fade haircut along with the fingerless gloves.
• Family Theme Naming: Possibly not intentional, but his civilian name, Conner, is an occupational surname, like Clark's name.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: He was stuck in the Legion of Super-Heroes' time period for a while, but simultaneously appeared in Teen Titans... Eventually, Teen Titans had a crossover with Legion in which he disappeared from the 21st century, then came back moments later, having traveled to the point in the Legion's timeframe where he first appeared, then spent several months there before being sent back to get the Titans and bring them to the future for a time-traveling team-up.
• Flying Brick: His original abilities were "programmed" to mimic Superman's as closely as possible, including flight, deflecting bullets and mimicking Super-Strength through Telekinesis and over time he developed the usual Kryptonian power set allowing him to find more creative uses for his telekinesis.
• Freudian Trio: The Ego to Bart's Id and Tim's Superego. Lampshaded in Young Justice.
• Fun Personified: Superboy is for the most part a bouncy cheerful teen who is always looking for fun and trying to get everyone around him to have fun. Young Justice saw fit to make him angry-sad brood boy instead, however.
• Future Me Scares Me: Pre-Flashpoint, his future self takes the mantle of Superman and leads the Titans in a successful takeover of Earth. All attempts by Young Justice and or Teen Titans to ensure this future never comes to be only make these despot future Titans more powerful, even when it is shown their actions actually stop the scenario that created them from happening.
• Go-to Alias: Before adopting the name Conner Kent, he would use the name "Carl Krummet" whenever he needed to pass as a normal human. In the very first appearance of the "Conner Kent" name, in an issue of Batgirl, he notes that it's more fun being Carl than being Conner.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Retconned into this during the Teen Titans run. Originally, it was stated that he was a human clone modified to mimic Kryptonian genes.
• Hate at First Sight: In Convergence, this is how the Kingdom Come heroes see him. Where they come from, brash, arrogant young punks are the blight of the world.
• Heroic BSoD: After Luthor brainwashes him just before Infinite Crisis.
• Heroic Build: He was introduced with a fairly lithe design, but then redesigned as a chiseled body builder, with an undersized shirt and uncomfortable looking skinny jeans to emphasize how swoll he now was.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He found himself trying to save Hawaii from a meta-human much of the population sincerely believed to be the goddess Pele, who then killed herself by jumping into a volcano she herself created while he failed to talk her down then missed his Diving Save
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With both Tim Drake and Bart Allen.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": In his early comic run, Conner is detained by a board of truant officers who ask for his real name. As this is before Superman gives him his Kryptonian name, he can only tell them that Superboy is his real name.
• Homosexual Reproduction: The comics version is the biological mix of Superman and Lex Luthor.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Particularly in his 90s iteration, though it's faded over time. He motivates himself to catch an out of control plane by pretending it's full of supermodels, his room at Cadmus is filled with posters of beautiful women, and when asked to demonstrate his TTK, he shapes a rope into an Impossible Hourglass Figure. This sometimes works against him, such as when he ignored Tim's warning about Poison Ivy and was immediately hypnotized by her.
• Hot-Blooded: He is described as what happens when you take the power of Superman and give it to someone far less reserved.
• How Do I Shot Web?: He went through this during his early years concerning his Tactile Telekinesis. As he escaped Cadmus without being trained in what he had, he didn't know the extent of his powers and floundered his way through things, especially as he had no idea how to make things explode when he touched them.
• Hypocrite: In Teen Titans #100, he came to the conclusion that the only way to deal with the three clones of himself created by Superboy-Prime was to murder them with kryptonite he'd been keeping in his room as a fail safe, despite all the heartache and angst he'd been going through ever since he learned he was cloned from Lex Luthor and fearing that he may have been evil all along.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Bart to Conner, just before Infinite Crisis, and then Cassie to Conner, during Blackest Night.
• In Name Only: This Superboy originally had nothing in common with the previous Superboy in DC publication beyond happening to share some of Superman's DNA, since the original Superboy was just Superman as a boy, not a relative of him. As such the other Superboy had the same powers, family and upbringing as Superman, while this Superboy had pale imitations of Superman's powers, not much in the way of family, and was created as a teenager, rather than being allowed to grow into one as most babies do. This Superboy did become more Superman like as the Post Crisis comic books continued, but he still did all sorts of things original Superboy would not have, like join teams contemporary to adult Superman.
• Innate Night Vision: One of his eye based powers.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: At the peak of his popularity, Conner was one of the Main Events of Marvel Vs DC. He lost to Spider-man (Ben Reilly).
• Kid-anova: Girls whom he's dated or have been attracted to him include: Tana Moon, Roxy Leech, Knockout, Sparxx, all THREE of Triad/Triplicate Girl's split selves, Cassandra Cain, Dr. Sterling Roquette, Wonder Girl, Kara Zor-El (Pre-Crisis), Lori Luthor, and Poison Ivy. Especially when you consider that he was only born a few years ago.
• Kid-Appeal Character: His adventures were largely designed to be a cooler, hipper, Hotter and Sexier version of Clark Kent's.
• Kill It with Fire: Fire, electricity and other forms of intense energy were originally his biggest weaknesses, as his tactile telekinesis only worked if he was able to physically touch an object. At first, even touching a heated object could severely burn him. However, through training, he gained enough control to be able to withstand hot substances like lava, and slowly built up Damage Reduction to heat and energy in general. After his Kryptonian abilities kicked in, he now had Nigh-Invulnerability like Superman and no longer needed to worry.
• Kissing Cousins:
  • This one is complicated. Back when they first met, Kon-El and Supergirl II/(Matrix) were not related, and Superboy used to hit on Matrix with impunity. Then this Superboy was retconned as being a partial clone of Lex Luthor, meaning he and Matrix technically had the same father, even if they were Alternate Universe versions of the same man. He also later enjoyed mutual flirtation with the Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El when she was torn from time and space. Most subtext between the two was dropped when it was realized that Superboy is Superman's "offspring", but in the Blackest Night crossover, a Black-Lantern-ring-possessed Superboy taunts Wonder Girl (his girlfriend at the time) by saying that when he's alone, it's his "cousin" he fantasizes about. Conner himself is horrified by what his possessed self is saying, but doesn't exactly deny it. And then there's the Power Girl thing, though that's rarely gone beyond a few jokes.
  • Later on, there was Lori Luthor, who was actually disappointed that he saw her as a cousin.
• Kryptonite Factor: Like Superman he is as vulnerable to Kryptonite and magic.
• The Law of Power Proportionate to Effort: He has Psychic Powers that work both subconsciously and with effort.
  • His original abilities were "programmed" to mimic Superman's as closely as possible, including deflecting bullets and mimicking Super-Strength through Telekinesis. They turn "off" completely when he's asleep or unconscious, making him as vulnerable as a normal human.
  • He eventually takes effort to break the subconscious "rules' for his power so that he can use them in other ways, such as moving something as large a ship or as light as air vapor with his mind.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Between Kal-El Superboy and Kon-El Superboy in the "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!" crossover (as this page's picture indicates).
• Limited Wardrobe: He owns dozens of identical leather jackets to replace the ones that frequently get destroyed during fights.
• Logical Weakness: Originally, this Superboy had thought-based Psychic Powers that meant he was vulnerable when sufficiently distracted or asleep. The Teen Titans Retcon instead gave him the powers of Superman and all the illogical weaknesses that come with them.
• Loophole Abuse: "But Batman never said anything about your teammates, right? Never a mention of Young Justice steering clear of Gotham or you'd be waxing the Batmobile?"
• Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Hey, has Kon-El mentioned that he has tactile telekinesis? Because he does.
• Manchurian Agent: Part of the arc where he discovers Lex Luthor shares half of his DNA which enabled Lex to use him via this trope as well as the Brainwashed and Crazy trope.
• Mind Over Matter
  • At first, Superboy's only superpower was "tactile telekinesis", a telekinetic force field that surrounds his body as a protective shield and allows him to simulate Superman-level speed, strength, flight and invulnerability. The tactile "tactile telekinesis" field also lets Superboy break free of an opponent's grip by pushing the field outward to force the opponent away.
  • The powers of the version from the Bad Future of the Titans Tomorrow story arc are upgraded from tactile telekinesis to full-blown telekinesis in the interim, which pretty much gives him the combined power of Superman and Phoenix, save only the Telepathy.
• Mix-and-Match Man: Conner is a clone made of DNA from both Superman and Lex Luthor.
• Morally Superior Copy: Conner Kent falls under this, in addition to Copied the Morals, Too, as he is a clone of both Superman and Lex Luthor. Luthor believed that the clone possessing his genes would be both easier to control and behave more like a "Luthor" than Superman. For added insurance, he also subconsciously conditioned the clone to act as a Manchurian Agent that he could directly control. But Superboy's desire to be a hero like Superman was far stronger than whatever was imprinted on him by Luthor.
• Must Not Die a Virgin: Conner and Cassandra's last night together before the conclusion of Infinite Crisis. Also counts as Their First Time.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Superman dies, The Metropolis kid spends an issue of one of the book's four substitute costars beating up Steel, one of the other four substitute Supermen. While Steel does fight back, it's clear he stands no chance, and Superboy seems quite proud of himself, until after the fight when he learns who Steel is, Superboy realizing he just did a bad thing.
• Nature Versus Nurture: During his Darker and Edgier years, he's all about this trope. In the earliest years, his "daddy" was Paul Westfield and later, it was retconned to be Lex Luthor instead. Neither of them are very nice people. So, Superboy constantly questions whether he was destined to become good or evil based on the genes provided by Superman or his human father.
• Nice Guy: Not at first. The kid had a serious chip on his shoulder. But with a lot of Character Development and influence from Jon and Martha Kent, he eventually became as kind and caring as Clark albeit Younger and Hipper.
• Never Given a Name: While he had a designation prior to Kal-El bestowing a name on him it was never treated as a name and he never responded to it since those using it considered him disposable property rather than an individual. When Superman finally gave him a name Kon cried with joy, as it reaffirmed him as a person with his own rights and the name placed him firmly in Superman's own family.
• Not Growing Up Sucks: To clone him, a group of evil scientists "unzipped" his DNA, thus causing Superboy to slowly degenerate. The only way Cadmus's scientists could stop it was to halt his aging at physically 16 years old. Afterward, they couldn't find the aging genome to turn it back on until some time later, during the Young Justice Crisis Crossover "Sins of Youth," when the spell that aged the rest of his teammates to adults started tearing him apart at the genetic level once again. Cadmus reactivated Superboy's aging, only to have him lose all his powers when the aging spell was lifted.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Before Superman gave him a Kryptonian name and then an earth name, both of which placed Kon in his family, Superboy didn't have a name outside of a nickname or a number.
• Only Sane Man: In Convergence: Superboy #1, Dubbilex narrates that Superboy is the only person in the domed Metropolis who hasn't moved on and accepted their new life.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: He saves Hawaii from a villain calling himself King Kamehamayhem, and ends up anger most of the populace he was protecting by inadverdantly insulting Hawaiian culture and history
• Pretender Diss: Constantly on the receiving end of this from anyone who knows or knew of Superman. The worry of not living up to the name is Conner's biggest fear.
• The Power of the Sun: Like Superman, derives his Kryptonian powers from the absorption of solar energy from the Earth's yellow sun.
• Properly Paranoid: His concern about Cadmus wanting their incomplete experiment off the streets is brushed off as him being ridiculous, but Superman ends up rescuing him from a kidnapping attempt and Guardian makes it clear that Superman's reassurances that Cadmus isn't trying to kill or lock S.B. up don't fit with reality. Superman quickly lets Cadmus know S.B. is under his protection in response.
• Puberty Superpower: Also like Superman he develops his Kryptonian powers as he ages, starting out with only his tactile telekinesis which comes from his human DNA.
• Raised in a Lab: In his New 52 origins, Superboy was raised in a lab as an Artificial Human with Superman's DNA and later released as a Human Weapon.
• Really Was Born Yesterday: He set out to be a superhero at a very young age, it helps that Cadmus created him as a teen.
• Retcon: Superboy was initially depicted as a genetically-engineered metahuman clone of human origin designed by Project Cadmus as a duplicate and closest genetic equivalent of Superman. The character was retconned in Teen Titans as a Kryptonian/human hybrid of Superman and Lex Luthor.
• Ret-Gone: DC Rebirth stated that Conner was wiped from history, though various people vaguely remembered him. The reformed Young Justice managed to find him and bring him back to the main reality, although he was still considered a stranger. Dark Nights: Death Metal then finally restored his complete history to continuity.
• Round Hippie Shades: He picks up round sunglasses purely as a fashion statement. When The Glasses Come Off, it is a signal Superboy is starting to take things more seriously.
• Secret Project Refugee Family: Kon-El is considered like a cousin to the newsboys' clones' makeshift family as a fellow Cadmus clone whom they helped escape.
• Secret Public Identity: Superboy initially has no secret identity and until Superman gives him a name he's just "Superboy" or "The Kid". He even goes to school as Superboy.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: Early on, and mostly at Rex Leech's prompting, S.B. does everything he can to promote himself, in order to make himself enough a part of the public consciousness that Cadmus can't grab him and lock him back up in a lab for the rest of his life without causing a public outcry.
• Signature Move: Kon frequently lets attackers with super strength pin him to the ground so he can use his TTK to push off it and fling them far away. He does this less and less and he further refines his control to be able to use his TTK in more effective and less direct ways, and once his Kryptonian powers come in he rarely has need to supplement his strength this way.
• Skipping School: In Superboy (1994) he gets detention for repeatedly skipping school in order to do hero work.
• Stepford Smiler: Long before his mopey out of left field Teen Titans days Kon-El would occasionally show that he was deeply concerned about his origin, freedom, the rights of clones and living up to Superman's legacy despite his near constant light hearted antics during the period. Heck, even before he got his own book he showed signs of his hidden turmoil when Superman had to rescue him from the underworlders and the only way for him to get answers as to his creation without being locked back up in Cadmus was for Superman to accompany him and threaten Cadmus to keep their hands off him.
• Suicide by Sea: When he realizes he can't take out Knockout in a regular fight he uses his TTK to pin both of them to the sinking island they're on in order to drown. Luckily she passes out before him so he's able to hand her to the authorities for arrest instead.
• Super Powered Date: He's done this numerous times. Most notably for Cassandra Cain (where he built a castle in the sky made out of clouds), and Cassie Sandsmark, where he levitated a picnic bench during a romantic dinner.
• Superpower Lottery: During Teen Titans, Superboy developed Kryptonian powers including heat vision, x-ray vision and super-hearing. He also developed Kryptonian invulnerability and super strength as shown when he battled the hugely powerful Superboy-Prime.
• Super-Strength: As stated above Kon-El developed Kryptonian super strength as he aged, and could mimic super strength using his TTK before that.
• Super-Toughness: Prior to developing Kryptonian powers as he aged Kon claimed to be invulnerable already, due to his use of his TTK field as a personal force field, though he was still shown to be less invulnerable than Superman. He could also wrap this field around others so long as he was touching them but was just as vulnerable as a normal human when asleep or other times the field was down.
• Surfer Dude: Kon-El learns to surf while living in Hawaii and incorporates some surfer lingo and local pidgin into his already odd vocabulary.
• Taking You with Me:
  • He decides this is the only way to deal with Knockout, but since she passes out before him he's able to hand her over to the authorities for arrest instead.
  • This becomes straight in the fight Conner has with Superboy-Prime where he grabs him and smash to the Anti-Monitor tower in Infinite Crisis, also making a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Tears of Joy:
  • After Kal-El bestows him with the name Kon-El he tears up out of joy at being given his own name outside of a designation (13), superhero name (Superboy), or nickname (The Kid, S.B.).
  • Infinite Crisis: After realizing his Heroic Sacrifice of destroying the Anti-Monitor tower brings back the world and multiverse to normality.
  Cassie: You did it, Conner. You saved Earth. You saved everyone.
  Conner: I know, Cass. (a tear falls from his cheek and he smiles) Isn't it cool?
• Temporal Mutability: Continuity seems to place it somewhere between Types I - IV. The modern Superboy technically became a time traveler, every bit as out of place in this era as Booster Gold. His "current" self is still a corpse, slowly recovering within the Fortress of Solitude. Kon-El is careful not to disturb the body resting there, as he isn't quite sure what will happen to himself if he does. Other than that, though, the DC universe's rules on time travel are malleable enough to allow Conner to exist in the present without worrying too much about screwing up the timestream.
• There Was a Door: Early on he had a bad habit of entering and exiting buildings through walls, though he only really did so during fights when he was in a hurry.
• They Would Cut You Up: The Agenda certainly would, and does. What they do to him in order to create Match nearly kills him several times over despite Cadmus and S.T.A.R. Labs scientists working to save his life.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Kon-El believes very much in operating on this principal but comes close to breaking it to deal with Knockout, thinking the only way to do so is to take her out with himself before finding a way around it and later shows that when the situation is grave enough he follows it more closely to it's original meaning of thou shall not murder even if he detests killing.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: During the brief period Kon was without powers he used a thrown shield to destroy some slave collars and take out bad guys as trained to by Guardian. Unlike many examples that take from Captain America and return like a boomerang Kon always had to go grab the thing from wherever it landed instead.
• Time Travel: Like Kal-El, Conner has had many adventures with the Legion of Super-Heroes.
• Totally Radical: He started out like this, and even had good excuses like being regularly exposed to Hawaiian pidgin and surfer lingo, before he was retooled into Mr. Clone Angst.
• Tough Spikes and Studs: Post Rebirth, his jackets are oftend studded with spikes, though often not enough to be immediately noticeable.
• The Trope Kid: Before the original Superman returned while he was still refusing to be called Superboy he was called the Metropolis Kid.
• True Companions: With Tim Drake, Bart Allen and Cassandra Sandsmark.
• Two-Donor Clone: The 2003 Teen Titans series establishes that he was cloned from Superman's and Lex Luthor's DNA.
• Tyke-Bomb: Superboy was created by Paul Westfield to be a weapon. Westfield was then retconned away, replaced with long established Superman villain Lex Luthor, who had given Superboy hypnotic suggestions that would turn Superboy into a Manchurian Agent.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: He once tussled with Spider-man (Ben Reilly) during the Marvel Vs DC event.
• Unequal Pairing: Knockout, who is much older and has inserted herself into Superboy's life as a trainer/teacher in order to try to corrupt him and turn him into her lackey, and the less than a year old "teenaged" Superboy.
• Unwitting Test Subject: Superboy finds himself being used as an unwilling experimental subject by Agenda.
• Utility Belt: After Kon loses his powers he keeps crimefighting gadgets in a utility belt and uses his Legion ring to fly.
• Valley Girl: Kon starts out as an unquestionable male example even though he was like grown in a jar in Metropolis and never lived in the valley. Presumably he picked up the mannerisms through the Neural Implanting Cadmus did, and he definitely cares quite a bit about fashion.
• Variant Power Copying: He is a clone of Paul Westfield who was enhanced with various Psychic Powers, implemented in the best ways project Cadmus could imitate the powers of Superman. Or he was, until Superboy was retconned as a clone of Superman and Lex Luthor, then started developing Superman's actual powers.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: Kon starts to realize that this a significant downside to having no secret identity.
• Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: S.B. was attending Ilupani High School while working as Hawaii's hero and found himself in trouble when school caught up to and surpassed the knowledge Cadmus had implanted in his brain. He got kicked out for unrelated reasons soon after but his school teachers still expect him to keep up with at home schooling. This later is also seen in vol.5 where he attends Smallville High School after being revived in Final Crisis.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Kid does not like sharks. They're not really physically a problem for him but this interactions with King Shark have left him unnerved by actual sharks.
• Win Your Freedom: On the Wild Men's island Superboy wins his freedom in a contest.
• The Worf Effect: After Superman's death, "The Metropolis Kid" gets to enjoy a few issues of showboating and success, to build up his credibility before Cyborg Superman defeats and abducts The Kid, to show that he's the villain of this story arc and that it will take more than one Supmeran wannabe to stop Cyborg.
• Worf Had the Flu: Several of Superboy's defeats and near defeats are only able to happen because he's already injured or ill.
• Working Through the Cold: While suffering degeneration from Agenda's experiments he continues to act as "Hawaii's Hero". Unfortunately this only accelerates the issue till he can't even stand on his own and has to be rushed to Cadmus to save his life.
• X-Ray Vision: One of the last powers he develops.
• You Are Number Six: Conner Kent was designated "S-13" at Cadmus, in relation to being the thirteenth (and only successful) clone of Superman.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: The Kid's irritated response to realizing Knockout has been playing him for a fool.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: After realizing just how wrong he was about Knockout her subsequent approval of his violence while fighting her does not make him pleased.
• Younger Than They Look: As a result of being made as a teenager he starts his series much younger than he looks.

The New 52 Superboy, who was given a very different origin in the aftermath of the Crisis Crossover Flashpoint. This Superboy was a biological experiment of the conspiracy known as N.O.W.H.E.R.E., made from Superman's DNA and that of several others, both human and alien. Or so we were told: he is eventually revealed to be a clone of Superman and Lois Lane's child Jon Lane Kent from the same future the leader of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. comes from. He was used by them as a living weapon, under the supervision of both "Red", a.k.a. Dr. Caitlin Fairchild (the last survivor of the team of scientists working on him) and Rose Wilson, a young mercenary hired to make sure that he stays under control.

At first, this Superboy had virtually none of the empathy of his earlier incarnation; he just wanted to escape N.O.W.H.E.R.E., and was not picky about what he has to do until he could. After succeeding in his escape, a stint with the Teen Titans and undergoing a series of humbling adventures and ordeals, he became considerably more heroic. Afterward, he was Put on a Bus with his whereabouts and status unknown.

• Adaptation Name Change: To the extent that he's the same character as Conner, it's notable that he's never named that. The only name he has is "Superboy". When he gets called "Kon" by Supergirl, it turns out to be a Kryptonian Fantastic Slur, because Kryptonians really don't like clones, though it becomes an Appropriated Appellation.
• Adaptational Context Change: Pre Flashpoint: "Kon-El" was a name he was given in love. New 52 changes it to an insult he just rolls with since it's the closest thing to a "proper" name he's ever been given.
• Alternate Timeline Ancestry: His ancestry is all kinds of muddled up. In addition to being the Alternate Self of the post-Crisis Conner Kent, he's also a clone of Jon Lane Kent, who was the son of Superman and Lois Lane. And since the two of them later merge, it also means he's an Alternate Self to Jonathan Samuel Kent, who is also Superman and Lois's son from different universes (who merged with their alternate selves).
• Anti-Hero: Initially, of the Nominal Hero kind. This version of Superboy has no interest in heroics beyond what it takes to survive/gain his freedom. Between the first and second issues, he kills many of his captors by reflex and feels no remorse or guilt, tortures a group of soldiers who hold him at gunpoint, and flat out threatens to kill anyone who stands in his way. Issue #4 steers him towards being a Knight in Sour Armor, and he eventually becomes an All-Loving Hero.
• Arch-Enemy: Harvest, who hunts homeless, or in Superboy's case, runaway teenagers for the greater good. Superboy turns out to be a creation of Harvest. Superboy's escape is what sets Harvest on his anti homeless/runaway teenager mission.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He taught himself to talk and communicate by watching others do it.
• Bald of Evil: Depending on how you view his "anti-hero" antics, Superboy is this when fresh out of the test tube.
• Become a Real Boy: His character development seems to be headed in this direction. In fact, he uses these exact words in issue #6.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • Superboy and Rose Wilson
  • The fight between Superboy and Wonder Girl in Teen Titans is even more blatant. All the two talk about is how cute they find each other while trying to smear their faces into the sidewalk.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: In addition to the Kryptonian side of his DNA, Superboy states that his "brain" is, in fact, every single atom of his body.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Superboy sometimes has trouble understanding moral issues, as he hasn't really had much time to learn about it. He honestly doesn't understand why robbing a bank gets him complaints.
  • He gets better about it over time, eventually becoming as much of a hero as his father.
• Clone Angst
  • Even more so than his pre-Flashpoint incarnation. Supergirl and H'el treat him like a monster at first because of a clone rebellion in Krypton's past. The name "Kon-El" is Kryptonian for "abomination of the house of El". The only reason he even exists is because Harvest wanted a guinea pig he could experiment on to find a cure for his "son's" (Jonathan Kent, the future son of Superman and Lois Lane) genetic problems. Having apparently done so, Harvest now wants Superboy dead.
  • Unlike H'El, Supergirl got over her hatred (finding out just why the rebellion happened, and helping to lead it, helped), and she even defended him during the storyline "Crucible".
• Clone Degeneration: H'El tries to kill Superboy by forcing his DNA to start unraveling, but Superboy manages to keep himself together with telekinesis long enough to be cured.
• Darker and Edgier: He's a drearier version of a character who was already a genetically modified clone intended for combat, of a clone weapon whose creators couldn't even be bothered to give a proper name to. While the Post Crisis Pre Flashpoint Superboy at least initially made a constant concious effort to be happy and appear happy when he wasn't, until the retcons started coming in, this Superboy has the more expected short tempered, impulsive and cruel personality traits right out the gate. He then proceeds to engage in acts of violence and criminality his Pre Flashpoint self never stooped to. New 52 Superboy still manages to become an idealized hero in spite of his rougher reworkings, but it taks him longer to, espcially relative to their comparative publication histories.
• Decomposite Character: Following DC Rebirth, it was revealed that the original pre-Flashpoint Kon-El was still alive and trapped in the Gemworld, making this character another clone entirely.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Becomes a source of angst when he realizes that he can't be around ordinary people without killing them.
• Effective Knockoff: Despite being an Expendable Clone of Jon Kent, Superboy is far more powerful and skilled than what he was cloned from. Even when we see the experienced future self of Jon Kent, he gets the stuffing beat out of him when attacks Wonder Girl, where this Superboy actually gives Cassie Sandsmark and her alien symbiotes a hard fight.
• Expy: Being a Hot-Blooded clone/Artificial Human and a Living Weapon (actually, he was a guinea pig) with enormous Psychic Powers, occasional initial vagueness on morals when it came to things like stealing, '90s Anti-Hero morality that eventually developed into that of an All-Loving Hero and a tempestuous relationship with his counterpart that mellowed out over time, he comes across rather like a version of Nate Grey.
• Faking Amnesia: Superboy's cover story in the "small town" simulation.
• Future Spandex: Superboy's "Containment Suit".
• Genius Bruiser: Superboy has shown to possess superior intellect to what humans could ever have. His mind works with incredible speeds, and combined with his TTK-powers, it might be one of his greatest assets.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Superboy does this to blast Argo into space, allowing Kara to escape Krypton. He survives... somehow.
• In the Blood: Superboy's instinctual affection for farms in rural Kansas.
  • Accompanied by him completely ignoring someone in a burning building. Red wonders if this means that he has a "Lex Luthor Deeply pathological, megalomaniacal narcissist, the likes of which the world has never known" as a donor. It was, however, revealed that Superboy was aware that the people in the fire were just part of a simulation, and he was giving them the same concern that most people give random NPCs. Lex Luthor isn't his donor, as he is actually a clone of Superman and Lois Lane's future child.
  • On a physical level, he looks exactly like a young Superman.
• Lack of Empathy: At first. Although in issue #6, he suspects that he's starting to feel a spark of it. By the time his series gets into the twenties, he's got it in full, to All-Loving Hero levels.
• Mind Over Matter: In this version, it seems that his tactile telekinesis is far more powerful than in previous incarnations. It now operates like regular telekinesis letting him levitate objects at a distance and also providing greater awareness of his environment akin to a type of sonar. He also uses this to simulate some Kryptonian powers.
• Mix-and-Match Man: It's implied that this version of Superboy isn't just Kryptonian and human, but a mix of other alien species. He's eventually revealed to be a clone of Superman and Lois Lane's future child, Jon that was further experimented on in an effort to find cures from diseases.
• Mythology Gag: Superboy's status as an opposite morality clone of another Superboy makes him the New 52 version of Match. Jon Kent and the Post-Crisis Superboy were emotional and extroverted, while Match and New 52 Superboy are their stoic and technically superior clones. Jon Kent was even mentioned as having genetic issues, a common problem for the first version of Kon-El.
• The Needless: Superboy states that he doesn't need to eat or sleep.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Used at first to help differentiate him from Superman. In the new DC universe it was intended to make him look sinister in comparison to the Teen Titans, but since they also wore a lot of red and black - to the point where if you take away the wings and domino mask and S-shield respectively, it can be quite hard to tell Superboy and Red Robin apart - it didn't really work.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When using his telekinetic abilities.
• Ret-Canon: This version of Superboy is much closer to the Conner Kent shown in Young Justice than he is to his pre-New-52 counterpart. Both were secretly created as a Living Weapon and have to deal with doubt about their personhood; both were shunned by Kryptonians for their status as clones; and both had very similar attitudes and temperament, especially in their willingness to use overwhelming force and temper control issues.
• Simulated Urban Combat Area: Where Superboy spends the majority of his time after being released from the tank.
• The Stoic
  • He's largely introspective and calmly rationalizes everything around him.
  • Not So Stoic: When he starts getting a no-holds-barred beatdown in issue #2.
• Super-Strength: Kon-El displayed strength enough to bench press a couple tons. His upper limit has fluctuated over time however.
• Superpower Lottery: Subverted. It seems that this Superboy has not yet obtained all of his Kryptonian powers and his only abilities are his tactile telekinesis and a degree of superhuman strength as well as a superhuman healing factor (something Harvest pointed out after Superboy's fight with Grunge) and is even able to bend light around him to turn invisible.
• Telepathy: Superboy can at least see and erase memories. Though it takes him quite a while to realise that he actually has this.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Thanks to this, Kon's pretty much become a one man Grey-Summers family. After sort-of dying, he teamed up with the original he's cloned from, who had pulled a Heel–Face Turn, after accidentally merging with that original in order to fight a past version of his original who hasn't yet pulled a Heel–Face Turn, then that original seemed to die, which altered the fight with his past self, somehow bringing Kon back to life.
• Too Much Alike: New 52 Superboy and New 52 Wonder Girl are both human-alien hybrids, Superboy through ancestry, Wonder Girl through symbiosis. Both might be a little more than that, as Superboy was further experimented on to find cures for diseases, while Wonder Girl is at least a quarter Hellenistic god, it being the only reason one of her symbiotes hasn't been able to kill her and move onto another host. They're also both brooding, short tempered, prone to violence, and have contentious relationships with their "seniors", Superman and Wonder Woman, despite their predecessors only wishing the best for them. Both are even more hostile with their other known "family" like Supergirl and Cassandra. Superboy and Wonder Girl both even have criminal records due to larceny, and a mutual enemy in Harvest. This is also the Superboy and Wonder Girl who don't date, even as their "seniors" hook up.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Though it takes him a while, he becomes much, much nicer as time goes by and much more heroic. The same thing happens to Jon when his future self is forced to swap places with Superboy.
• Watching the Reflection Undress: A superpowered variation occurs in issue #10: Superboy calls out that he's started their campfire, but when she doesn't answer, he searches and is stunned to walk in on Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark) bathing in a lake. Wonder Girl angrily calls him a pervert and tells him to turn around. Superboy turns around, but puts his hand on the ground and smiles. Wonder Girl remembers that he can "see" through what he is touching and angrily throws a rock at the back of his head to get him to cut it out.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He was last seen abandoning the Teen Titans and heading off with Harvest after being convinced he was indeed just a living weapon after all. Even with the subsequent return of the pre-Flashpoint Kon-El during DC Rebirth, it's unclear where the New 52 Kon is or if he even still exists.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Harvest wants him dead for this reason.

A fake Superboy created by the Time Trapper to act as a replacement for the real Superboy. He was at first believed to be the only Superboy the Legion knew after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Years later the Legionnaires figured out the Time Trapper fooled them as part of a scheme to keep them away from Superman.

• Cerebus Retcon: His existence is this trope, as he was initially created to fix the Continuity Snarl from DC removing Superman's career as Superboy from his personal history. Years later, the Pocket Earth was reframed as a gambit by the Time Trapper to demoralize the Legion and keep them from remembering the actual Superboy.
• Decomposite Character: He was created to fill Superboy's role in the Legion's history after The Man of Steel erased Superman's childhood adventures. Following Infinite Crisis, Superman regained his memories of the Legion and his role as the real Superboy. The Pocket Earth Superboy was reduced down to a prop meant to fool the Legion, and thus was never involved in any of their adventures.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: A phony Superboy created on a phony Earth as a ploy to gaslight the Legion.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Downplayed. Despite learning he was a puppet of the Time Trapper, the Legion still mourns his death and constructs a monument for him. Even in the Retroboot, his monument remained among those of other fallen Legionnaires despite the real Clark's status as part of the Legion officially restored.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appeared for a couple of issues before being killed off, while the Pocket Earth itself remained more relevant to Superman and the Legion afterwards.
• Unwitting Pawn: Was created solely to fool the Legion into thinking they never met the actual Superboy. The Time Trapper originally claimed he created this Superboy to inspire the Legion into forming so they would be able to fight Mordru the Merciless. Years later the Trapper admitted this was a ruse to distract the Legion, but this Superboy died without ever knowing the real truth of his existence.

The future son of Superman and Lois Lane from an alternate future who has genetic problems.

• Heroic Sacrifice: He gains empathy, and decides to essentially commit cosmic suicide to allow Kon-El to live again, whilst essentially erasing the last bit of the Bad Future that he and his "father" Harvest had come from.
• Mythology Gag: He wears a costume that looks a lot like the 90s Superboy costume.

Robin III / Red Robin III

Timothy Jackson "Tim" Drake-Wayne

Tim Drake as Robin III

Created By: Marv Wolfman · Pat Broderick

First Appearance: Batman #436 (1989)

Kon-El's best friend whom he worked with in Young Justice and later Teen Titans and who makes a handful of appearances in Kon's own books. Tim was a relatively newly minted Robin when Kon first broke out of Cadmus. Despite Tim playing the straight man to Kon-El's antics the two hit it off immediately and both trust each other more easily then most of their more regular allies in their own books by the time Young Justice dissolved.

• See Robin: Tim Drake

Impulse / Kid Flash

Bartholomew "Bart" Allen II

Created By: Mark Waid · Mike Wieringo

First Appearance: The Flash (Vol. 2) #92 (1994)

Another of Kon-El's closest friends in the superhero community. Bart was one of the three founding members of Young Justice alongside Kon and Tim and one of the four members of that team to continue on to the Teen Titans. Agenda got ahold of some of his DNA and used it to make one of their modified clones which Kon had to fight late in the series. Bart himself shows up as his fun-loving mostly carefree self when Kon is adjusting to Cadmus' new management.

• See The Flash – The Flashes

Hillary Chang

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) 16 (1995)

The first friend Kon-El makes when he starts attending Ilupani High School in Honolulu. Hillary was the first fellow student he meets there who doesn't immediately start fawning over him or acting like a huge fan upon meeting him, instead acting completely unimpressed and snarking at him in their first interaction.

• Deadpan Snarker: Constantly, though she tones it back with teachers.
• Muggle Best Friend: Most of Kon's friends are other superheroes or are scientists of some type, while this regular girl he happens to meet when he tried out school in order to better reflect Superman's ideals is the person he trusts to look after Krypto when he can't, and who he trusts to get him out of trouble with Hawaii's overeager truancy officers.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: With Kon and Tana who are both sharp enough to catch on and respond when she snarks at them, her best friend Robert on the other hand bemusedly catches on to what she's saying but knows he's too outclassed in the snark category by her to usually bother responding in kind.
• The Bus Came Back: Briefly when Kon-El brought Serling to see where he used to live in Hawaii and pick up Krypto.

Sparx

Donna Carol "D.C." Force

Created By:

First Appearance: Adventures of Superman Annual #5 (1993)

A metahuman from a Canadian family of meta-humans, that has a general rule against costumed heroics which she flaunts. She met Kon El while he was still in Metropolis and befriended him, eventually introducing him to Pocket Dimension of "the Rave".

Prince Tuftan

Created By: Jack Kirby · Mike Royer · Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #50 (1998)

The Prince of Roam in the Wild Lands. Tuftan became Superboy's owner after SB had been drugged into a stupor by Sacker and brought into town to be sold. When Tuftan's interactions with SB caused him to learn that the humans had been made insensate before being brought before the Wild Men and were actually intelligent individuals capable of speech he quickly abolished his small country's enslavement of them.

• Assassination Attempt: He survived an assassination attempt by Nosferata.
• Cat Folk: He's a tiger man, as is his father and his girlfriend is a lioness woman.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The second he learns that humans are sapient and capable of speech and the "medicine" they've been giving their human slaves has been keeping them mute and somewhat complacent he frees them and starts looking for ways to return them to their former lives and homes.

Sajan Mehra (Psionic Lad)

Created By: Jeff Lemire · Pier Gallo

First Appearance: Action Comics (Vol. 1) #892 (2010) - "Superboy" backup feature

A refugee from a Bad Future who has misrepresented his purpose and mission in the present.

• Psychic Powers: He's got a slew of them.
• Psychic Radar: Sajan can sense nearby lifeforms.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: He's been sent back in time from 2216 to prevent the Prime Hunter's rise to power.
• Something Person: His superhero name of choice makes Kon initially think he's from far further in the future than he really is since it resembles the style of names favored by the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Lori Luthor

Created By: Geoff Johns · Francis Manapul

First Appearance: Adventure Comics (Vol. 2) #1 (2009)

Kon-El's sort of cousin—her uncle Lex Luthor is one of his two primary genetic donors—who has a crush on him and is disappointed Kon sees her as family.

• Alliterative Name: Lori Luthor.
• Kissing Cousins: She's romantically interested in her biological first cousin, which squicks him out.
• Psychic Block Defense: Lori has a natural block against Psychic Powers.

Simon Valentine (Prime Hunter)

Created By: Geoff Johns · Francis Manapul

First Appearance: Adventure Comics (Vol. 2) #1 (2009)

A genius teen inventor who lives in Smallville.

• The Bus Came Back: He appears very briefly in Detective Comics (2016) as one of Tim's classmates at Ivy University in the timeline of the Titans of Tomorrow.
• Cassette Craze: Frequently documents his experiments and field observations on a tape recorder.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Simon is not aware he's looking at himself but he's creeped out nonetheless by the evil figure Sajan projects into his mind when showing the Bad Future he's from.
• Expy: He's essentially Conner's version of both the youthful Lex Luthor of Clark's childhood, and of Jimmy Olsen.
• Teen Genius: His projects have gotten the interest of Star Labs.

Tana Moon

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Adventures of Superman #501 (1993)

A native Hawaiin who Superboy met back when he was still in Metropolis laying claim to the title of Superman duringThe Death of Superman storyline. When he meets her again in Hawaii she's working as a reporter for KONA-TV.

• Age-Gap Romance: Tana was an adult in her 20s while Kon resembled a teenager but was barely days old when they first met. They began a relationship with it being acknowledge she was a grown woman with a career and he was just starting high school, but no one ever commented on the age gap even after she was killed.
• First Love: She was Kon's.
• Intrepid Reporter: Tana manages to get away from a lot of dangerous situations unscathed due to her relationship with Superboy meaning he's paying more attention to situations where she's possibly going to be in danger.
• Official Couple: She and Kon started dating after he moved to Hawaii and learned she'd moved back there since he'd last seen her.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: She was murdered by having an explosive strapped around her neck triggered by a grinning Amanda Spence right in front of Kon-El out of some sick need for vengeance even though all Kon has ever done to Amanda is save her life. Tana's mangled head and upper torso are even shown for shock value while Kon holds her in disbelief and grief. Her death was then used as an excuse to keep Kon from returning to Hawaii, by having her family blame Kon for her death, which is highly out of character for all her family members the reader was introduced to.
• Unequal Pairing: Superboy was only about a day old when they met while she was a grown adult who'd graduated college and was working as a reporter. Though she does care for him even she knows she's using his fondness for her to advance her career by getting exclusive interviews though she never brings up the ridiculous age gap between them. They were dating while he was in high school and she was an adult with a career.

Roxanne "Roxy" Leech

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett · Doug Hazlewood

First Appearance: Adventures of Superman #502 (1993)

The more responsible and moral daughter of Kon's swindling manager Rex Leech.

• Dumb Blonde: She's not actually an example at all but she played up the stereotype when she was forced to play the foolish "damsel" in her father's scams.
• Love Triangle: She loves Kon, who sees her as a sister and loves Tana.
• Superpower Silly Putty: She picks up a number of odd powers due to working with the new Special Crimes Unit of the Hawaiian police force and her father's ill fated and poorly conceived plans, including becoming host to an escaped Energy Being alien slave, and (on a separate occasion which led to the former) knowing how to pilot an experimental spacecraft.

Knockout/"Kay"

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #1 (1994)

A former Apokoliptian Fury who took an interest in Superboy after seeing the destructive nature of his fights on television while she was trying to blend in with Earth's regular population. She inserted herself into his life as a fighting teacher and tried to start a relationship with him, though their wildly different values made it impossible.

• See New Gods – Apokolips

Cassandra "Cass" Cain (Batgirl II/Blackbat)

Created By: Kelley Puckett · Damion Scott

First Appearance: Batman #567 (1999)

Cassandra Cain is the daughter of world renowned assassins Lady Shiva and David Cain, and the eventual adoptive sister of Kon's best friend Tim Drake. She and Superboy are briefly interested in each other but Cass realizes that she's really just looking for a friend, and Superboy is happy to be one. Due to Cass's abusive and isolated childhood she sometimes has trouble identifying her feelings towards others.

• See Batgirl or Batgirl (2000)

Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark (Wonder Girl)

Created By: John Byrne

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) #105 (1996)

Cassie Sandsmark is one of the "core four" of Young Justice alongside Kon, Tim, and Bart. While she held something of a crush for Kon from their early days of teamwork, his dismissive and immature attitude helped sour that initial attraction, though they remained among each other's closest friends. As the two of them matured they both grew to have more serious feelings for each other and started dating.

• See Wonder Woman: Allies

Dr. Serling Roquette

Created By: Karl Kesel

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol, 4) #56 (1998)

A young Cadmus genetics scientist with a crush on Conner. Her job also means experimenting on him, but she's not malicious about it like Cadmus at large by the point when he's forced to return and treated like government property rather than his own person.

• Ditzy Genius: She's incredibly smart but she sometimes has trouble sorting out social clues and can make others feel uncomfortable with some of her lines of questioning and bubbly loud personality.
• Fan of the Past: Hence her punny nickname.
• Horny Scientist: She's got a crush on Guardian and Superboy, neither of whom return the sentiment.
• Iconic Item: Her pink-rimmed cats eye glasses and smiley face earrings.
• Iconic Outfit: Black leggings with oversized striped socks, tennis shoes, an oversized offwhite shirt, a long open leopard print vest, her signature glasses, the smiley face earrings, and a black hairband.
• Lovable Nerd: She's a sweetheart who treats Superboy like his own person and respects his wishes and the concept of consent unlike the previous Cadmus scientists. Though the retcon to his origin means that she was lying and hiding things from both him and Superman this angle and her intentions and reasoning is never addressed save for the fact that her lying to him about the results of testing on him is made quite clear in Convergence.
• Mad Scientist: Though it's only evident after she's part of Superboy's past and it becomes clear that she was lying to him while experimenting on him instead of being more open and truthful than previous scientists like he had thought.
• Teen Genius: One of the world's leading experts on genetics before she's even in her twenties.

Dubbilex

XX

Created By: Jack Kirby

First Appearance: Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #136 (1971)

A fellow Cadmus creation, Dubbilex is a D.N.Alien who was sent by the project to keep an eye on Superboy when Superman made it clear he wouldn't allow the project to kidnap the Kid off the streets and keep him confined in Cadmus against his will. He becomes more and more distant from the project the longer he's with S-13 and ends up far more loyal to Superboy than he is to Cadmus. Although he starts dating a woman in Hawaii and has a life there he's forced back to the project and confined there when the government restructures Cadmus, putting Director Cannon in charge.

• Clones Are People, Too: He is a Cadmus clone with a lot of subtle personality, lending credence to Superboy's insistence that clones are people too in the face of those who consider them disposable.
• Depending on the Artist: Are his horns polished and pointy or stubby craggy stumps?
• Heroes Love Dogs: Dub gets along really well with Krypto.
• Hide Your Otherness: When he goes places with Roxy she almost always insists that he make himself look human so they don't attract attention.
• Horned Humanoid: Relativly humanoid with a pair of asperous horns.
• Interspecies Romance: Starts dating a human woman while living in Hawaii, their romance was unfortunately cut short as he was planning out how to tell her he wasn't human when the US Army showed up on his doorstep to force him back to Cadmus.
• LEGO Genetics: D.N.Aliens are "clones" cobbled together from various sources.
• Master of Illusion: He can and does use his Telepathy to appear to be a normal human.
• Mind Over Matter: He can telekinetically move lightweight objects.
• Mundane Fantastic: While he occasionally attracts attention when he goes out without a disguise, he usually doesn't despite his grey skin, slightly odd build, creepy white eyes and horns, since this is The DCU, where people are well aware that there are oddities living among them and for the most part are welcoming or ambivalent to them.
• Parental Substitute: He ends up becoming Superboy's guardian and parental figure. In Young Justice, he even shows up for the parent-teacher conference alongside a few actual parents.
• Private Tutor: He is Superboy's.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance: When trying to mentally reach someone far away or otherwise exerting his psychic abilities he sometimes puts two fingers to each temple.
• Psychic Block Defense: He helps train Superboy and the new Hawaiian Special Crimes Unit to defend against low level mental attacks as well as they can without any psychic powers.
• Psychic Link: Gene-Gnome creates a mental link between them to slowly turn Ex into his puppet.
• Psychic Radar: He notices invisible or otherwise hidden individuals due to their brain activity on several occasions.
• Talking in Your Dreams: If he mentally contacts someone in their sleep he usually appears as himself talking to them in their dream.
• Telepathy: He's a telepath.
• Translator Microbes: If everyone involved agrees to allow him to join them in a mild mental link he can translate languages and meanings for those trying to talk even if he's never heard the languages involved before.
• You Are Number Six: His Cadmus designation is XX.

Rex Leech

Superboy's manager and the in-series owner of the Superboy trademark.

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superman: Man of Steel #20 (1993)

• Con Man: Before and after becoming Superboy's manager. This eventually leads to Superboy returning to Cadmus partially to escape his contract with him after he catches Rex setting up Engineered Heroics.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Deconstructed. He entirely ruins his more responsible daughter Roxy's life, even when it looks like she's finally going to escape when she joins the police in Hawaii he manages to ruin her attempt to build a career.
• Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Heck even his interactions with Superboy are this.
• Meaningful Name: Leech. He's a swindler who sees others as a potential paycheck and will suck them dry if given the opportunity.

Agent Makoa

Sam Makoa

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #1 (1994)

A police detective in Honolulu who later becomes the leader of Hawaii's new Special Crimes Unit designed to deal with meta-human and other super-powered threats.

• Friend on the Force: As ornery and abrasive as Sam is he still cares for Superboy and is the first to speak up for him or even risk his own position by going against others in regards to him. He also has no problem setting out to arrest the Kid if he feels the situation requires it, but he still doesn't want anyone trying to hurt SB.

Created By: Ron Marz · Ramon Bernado

First Appearance: 1996, Superboy Vol 4 #32

A secret criminal organization run by those who think controlled clones are the key to fighting off earth's frequent alien invasions rather than superheroes. They also see their clone army as a source of power, and are big fans of the might makes right school of thought.

• Clone Army: When they're first introduced they create an "improved" Superboy (mostly improved by his complete obedience) and intend to create a lot more and sell most of them to the highest bidder.
• Evil Counterpart: To Cadmus, which already had a number of its own moral failings.
• Expendable Clone: They see clones as a commodity to be sold, or destroyed if "outdated", rather than as individuals.
• Kill and Replace: Their mode of operation for the most part;
  "The old is sacrificed in order to make way for the new. That is the situation. Match is the new and his first labor is the destruction of the old."
• They Would Cut You Up: Agenda most certainly would kidnap, experiment on and dissect any clones they wanted to replicate or any people they felt it would be beneficial to clone.

Director Erica Alexandra del Portenza

Created By: Roger Stern · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superman: Man of Tomorrow #1 (1995)

The former wife of Lex Luthor, the mother of his daughter and a former Lex Corp CEO.

• Older Than They Look: Her family lineage can live unnaturally long lives due to a meta-gene and in the twenty years she knew Lex prior to her faking her death she never physically aged.

Agent Spence

Amanda Spence

Created By: Ron Marz · Ramon Bernado

First Appearance: Superboy Vol 4 #32 (1996)

Paul Westfield's vindictive daughter Amanda Spence feels Superboy is unworthy of carrying her father's genes or legacy and decides to make his life miserable and kill him in return for being made.

• Big Bad: Ultimately.
• Bulletproof Vest: She is usually wearing bullet resistant armor as part of her uniform.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Evidently Tana annoyed her after they kidnapped her and experimented on her so she not only went out of her way to kill Tana after giving her a Hope Spot, she also had her cloned just so she could have the pleasure of killing her twice.
• Evil Is Petty: See above.
• Family Honor: Why she takes Superboy's perceived deficiencies so seriously and decides to not only go out of her way to try to kill him but also to torture him both mentally and physically.
• Villainous Lineage: Both she and her father have a skewed sense of morality that they use to justify hurting others.

Match

Kent Conner

Created By: Ron Marz · Ramon Bernado

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #35 (1997)

Agenda's modified prideful Superboy clone. Agenda cut some corners in their process of creating a quick obedient clone and in the process failed to address the issues with Kryptonian cloning that tends to cause degeneration, even if this flaw in their process was not immediately evident.

• Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: He was designed to be Superboy but "better", and certainly thinks of himself as such. He sees Kon as beneath him but Kon always beats him, sometimes even by cutting off his boasting with a well timed punch, even if early on it always took the situation making Match need to leave in a hurry rather than finish the fight since he really was stronger than Kon.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: He was incredibly proud of his intelligence, the clever plans he could put together, his ability to be subtle and his more refined manner of speech and everything "evil" or villainous he did was on his master's orders. Then he started degrading and became a dumb brute who'd attack others loudly and for little reason and Kon-El surpasses him in terms of actual strength and power when he reappears in Teen Titans.
• Clone Degeneration: Unfortunately for Match Agenda's cloning process has the same flaw as Dr. Teng's Bizarro creating cloning process of not including any living DNA in the clone even if the degeneration process is delayed and slower. He maintains the intelligence and cleverness he's so proud of throughout Superboy Vol 4 but when he appears again later he's started to become more Bizarro like until he's near indistinguishable from S-01 "Bizarre-O", Cadmus' first attempt at making a Superboy, and continues to degrade until his death at Superboy-Prime's hands.
• Broad Strokes: When Match was brought back by later writers he had more in common with S-01 than his prior self though he retained his history with Kon-El and the former members of Young Justice.
• Evil Counterpart: Match is an evil counterpart of Kon-El that Kon has to face.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Match, though when he's not changing his appearance with his additional powers he looks like a pallet swapped Kon-El instead of properly passing as him, is still an evil character that looks like Kon.
• Evil Knockoff: After Amanda Spence helped Agenda knock out and kidnap Superboy they used him to fashion a modified clone with more powers that would actually obey orders called Match and the first order given to him is to kill Superboy.
• Evil Twin: Match is an evil clone of Kon-El, though the odd manner of his creation means he was created by replicating the effects observed by Agenda scientists "unzipping" Kon-El's DNA leaving room for interpretation on how and out of what he was grown but Kon considers him a brother.
• I Am What I Am: Match says he is what he was created to be and there's no cause for him to stop trying to kill Superboy after his creators ordered him to, he also claims not to have any desire to do more than serve but after spending time pretending to be Kon-El among Young Justice he started to realize that he actually does, though it was already made evident by the end of his first appearance that there was more to him than he seemed to know.
  "In order for my existence to be considered slavery, it would be necessary for me to possess free will. That is not one of my personality facets. I was created to serve. I have no other purpose, nor the desire for one."
• Innocent Fanservice Guy: After his Naked on Arrival, he doesn't have much of a problem having a conversation in the nude, and when given an outfit to wear while doing so puts on the shirt first.
• Palette Swap: He's an entirely pale white version of Kon-El visually, with pale blonde hair and even white eyes.
• Pride: It's his greatest weakness initially, and eventually he loses all the things he was so proud of.
• Superpower Lottery: He seems to have Superman's whole set, even if it the powers start fading as he dies.
  • Flying Brick: Flyer with invulnerability and other powers.
  • Invisibility: One of Match's upgrades from Kon is his ability to turn invisible, though it might actually be Chameleon Camouflage or an extension of his psychic abilities as this particular ability is only shown twice and never thoroughly explained.
  • Master of Disguise: Match can use his low level psychic abilities to change the way his hair, eye and skin color look and make it look like he's wearing a different outfit. He is also capable of adopting other people's mannerisms and speech patterns. This mostly allows him to pretend to be Kon-El, even though he despises the way Kon talks and acts, since he's a Palette Swap of him.
  • Mind Over Matter: He's got tactile telekinesis like Kon-El, but greater control over it as soon as he's awoken/activated.
  • Nigh-Invulnerable: He's got the same TTK field as Kon, and better control of it. He was later retconned to have the same weakened Kryptonian invulnerability as other "Bizarro" clones.
  • Super-Speed: He's as fast as Superboy.
  • Super-Strength: He has the same TTK that allows Kon-El to mimic super-strength and much better control of it, and later was given Kryptonian strength.

Tropes relating to Match in the Infinte Frontier era

Although he (along with Kon) was erased from continuity during The New 52, Match eventually returned in the pages of Suicide Squad. Amanda Waller, seeking a Superman-level powerhouse, kidnapped Superboy to fill the role. It was eventually revealed that Conner Kent would have been too difficult to capture and contain, and so Waller turned to the now-defunct Agenda, brainwashing Match to serve in his stead.

• Age-Gap Romance: After Nocturna acted as a mother figure towards him, the two eventually became lovers in a rather disturbingly played straight homage to Kon's relationship to Tana Moon.
• Becoming the Mask: Even after his true identity is restored, the other members of the Suicide Squad note that he's still acting like The Cape. Waller's dialogue (and her confession to "Superman" in Future State) implies that this was All According to Plan.
• The Bus Came Back: He was absent for a decade after Flashpoint, since Conner didn't exist for most of that time. He returned as the Suicide Squad's resident "Superboy" in 2021.
• The Cape: Match's behaviour while brainwashed was consistent with the real Kon-El, refusing to kill and going off-mission to try and rescue those in need.
• Expendable Clone: A variation, in that Waller doesn't necessarily consider him especially expendable, but the rest of the world more or less forgot about him after the Agenda shut down, meaning nobody noticed when she grabbed him to mold into her own personal Superman.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Naturally, being upstanding and heroic doesn't endear him to his supervillain teammates, who initially consider him an annoying killjoy.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Waller has his true memories supressed to use him as a stand-in for Conner on the Suicide Squad.
• Shapeshifting Failure: Without regular injections of special medicine, his body and speech patterns begin to revert to the Bizarro-like state he had in the 2003 run of Teen Titans. After The Reveal, Waller's scientists are able to stabilize his mind, but his appearance remains that of a Bizarro, and he even begins wearing a shirt with a backwards "S" shield.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: His brainwashing causes him to adopt the actual Conner's aversion to lethal force. Waller even reminds him of it to snap him out of his Unstoppable Rage when fighting Ultraman.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Thanks to a combination of recurring Clone Degeneration, a confrontation with the real Conner, and coming face to face with dozens of Superboy clones in tanks.
• Unstoppable Rage: Ultraman gets under his skin so bad that he stops trying to escape Earth-3 in favor of continuing to fight.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Waller justifies kidnapping and inducting "Superboy" by nonchalantly opining that, as a clone, his mere existence is a crime.

Gene-Gnome

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: 1995, Superboy Vol 4 #65

One of Donovan's D.N.Aliens.

• Adaptational Backstory Change: There are "G-Gnomes" in Young Justice (2010) but while they have Gene-Gnome's mind control abilities, propensity for riding around on shoulders and ties to Cadmus they're otherwise very different from Gene-Gnome. For one thing none of them seem to have anything resembling a personality and theyre now "genomorphs" instead of D.N.Aliens, though of course all other characters that were originally D.N.Aliens are now "genomorphs" in the show.
• Adaptation Personality Change: The G-Gnomes don't really seem to have any personality at all beyond that of maybe a cat or dog and are certainly not malicious even if their actions are often horrifying while Gene-Gnome was unquestionably a cruel vindictive villain.
• Adaptation Name Change: The G-Gnomes of Young Justice (2010) are obviously that earth's version of Gene-Gnome.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In Young Justice (2010) the G-Gnomes were how Superboy had information implanted in his head while the method behind his implanted knowledge was not really explored in the original comics.
• More than Mind Control: He secretly twists the thoughts Dub is reading off of his colleagues to make Dubbilex feel unwanted long before he actually reveals himself. He even twists the reader's perception of the others working at Cadmus and in the end it's left ambiguous just how any of them really felt about Dubbilex and the other less human looking and acting Cadmus creations, especially since Director Cannon's thoughts, which mostly fit Fantastic Racism, are implied not to have been tampered with.
• Parrot Pet Position: He's not a pet, but he's a tiny D.N.Alien that takes to sitting on Dubbilex's shoulder as an invisible mind controller after he strengthens their Psychic Link.
• Psychic Link: He creates one in between himself and Dubbilex in order to poison Dubbilex against Cadmus, he slowly uses the link to turn Dubb into a mind-controlled puppet.

Point Men

Grey Lady, Blank Slate, Blockade, Groundswell, Serpenteen, Short Cut

A group of super-powered Agenda soldiers created through the same destructive cloning process that resulted in Match. The whole group eventually defected after learning that they were clones and that their superiors considered them replaceable and humans in general idiotic and in need of "evolution".

• See Young Justice under Enemies

King Shark

Nanaue

Created By: Karl Kesel

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #0 (1994)

A serial killing man-eating monstrous bulletproof shark/human mashup who is native to Hawaii. He is rather unconcerned with human ideas about morality and cares for very few. After becoming a supporting character in Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis where he helped train the new Aquaman he sort of disappears from Atlantis and reappears as a straight villain again. He eventually joined Bane's Secret Six, though the only motive kind of given for his move to straight villainy makes little sense as Nanaue has never cared about human money.

• Anti-Hero: Nanaue has a ~weird~ position in Atlantian society where his behavior is more understood even if no one cares for his eating people thing even there. He helps train the new Aquaman when the first goes missing. It helps that he's more chatty underwater.
• Arch-Enemy: He and Sam Makoa have a longstanding animosity. He starts going out of his way to save Makoa by about the time Superboy meets him but the detective never gets over his hatred of Nanaue since he had to watch him kill and eat his some of his fellow officers the first time he managed to arrest him, and King Shark always remains a threat to Makoa even with his respect for him.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: He kills Sidearm by tearing a huge hole in him with his claws when the other Suicide Squad member looks like he's going to shoot Makoa in the back, he doesn't even try to eat him which, as noted below, is the biggest sign of disrespect a shark in the DCU can give a body. Makoa had no clue about Sidearm's intentions, and Nanaue makes only a token attempt to enlighten him while Makoa yells at him for taking out one of their allies.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: He is incredibly detached from humanity. There are things even early on, like his warning some swimmers not to go in the water due to shark danger, and then sighing and eating them when they ignore him, that hint he just views the world through a very different lens.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He seems to care for his mother. This does not prevent him from eating her arm, though it does keep him from killing and eating her.
• Half-Human Hybrid: His mother Kaikea is a Hawaiian woman and his father is Lord Chondrakha, King-god of all Sharks.
• Legacy Character: The first King Shark was a gangster apprehended by the Golden Age Green Lantern and sent to the electric chair. King Shark's ghost would return to atone for his crimes by helping Green Lantern catch the rest of his gang.
• Not Enough to Bury: Makoa notes that his victims' bodies are never recovered because Nanaue eats them. This might be due to his relationship to sharks in the DCU as those with higher intelligence like Cron One-Eye make it clear it's the height of disrespect to the dead for a shark to leave a body uneaten.
• Parental Abandonment: By his father when he was young. He gets drunk every time he has to deal with or work for his father, and disobeyed him when he ordered Nanaue to kill Aquaman.
• The Quiet One: He very rarely speaks, though he's capable of it. The only thing preventing him from fitting under Beware the Quiet Ones is that he's (almost) never met anyone who failed to notice his general bloodthirsty nature.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: After Superboy was coaxed into moving back into Project Cadmus Nanaue became an Aquaman villain/anti-villain/anti-hero.
• Shark Man: He's a shark-human mix.
• Super-Toughness: He's bullet proof, and while a high powered extended application of a replication of Superman's heat vision knocks him for a loop and allows him to be captured it does so without doing any visible or lasting damage.
• Villainous Valor: He grows to respect Makoa to an extent, and brutally murders Sidearm when the other villain looks like he's going to shoot Makoa in the back.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: His fin usually (Depending on the Artist) would make it pretty difficult for him to wear a shirt. Also he usually does more swimming than walking.
• Would Hurt a Child: He attacked Tana's little niece Iolani unprovoked while she was playing in the ocean at a busy beach. Strangely, although he did hurt her he didn't kill her or anyone else even though he'd have been able to do so easily. It's possible he just enjoyed scaring everyone out of the water and decided to just let Iolani go when Superboy grabbed her out of the water. He does have a weird sense of humor as demonstrated when he chucked Jimmy Olsen out a window in Villains United, dressed as Black Canary of all things.

Lady Dragon

???

Created By: Karl Kesel · Humberto Ramos

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #10 (1994)

"Lady Dragon" is the leader of the strange criminal organization known as the Silicon Dragons. With Superboy's arrival in Hawaii Sam Makoa worries the Dragon's will start to ramp up their firepower to remain on the same power level as their opponents, and he's right.

• Dragon Lady: As her name makes clearly evident.
• Laser Blade: She uses a plasma sword to fight Superboy.
• Eyepatch of Power: A Cybernetic eyepatch which allows her to see the interface for remote controlling the Dragon's fancy underwater hideout.
• The Leader: Of the Silicon Dragons.
• Leotard of Power: She wears a green one-sleeved leotard.
• Villainous Valor: To a bizarre extent. She'd chop off her own arm in order to stay on the same power level as an opponent.

Silver Sword

Arnold Kaua

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #2 (1994)

A Hawaiian museum curator who was fused with some metal when he tried to pick up what he thought was trash after a canister of it was lost by the military and washed up on the beach.

• Chrome Champion: He was accidentally merged with a silvery experimental substance that responds to his mental commands and which he coats himself with to fly. He even thinks he's a hero, fighting for the preservation of native Hawaiian culture but he's actually an anti-villain in practice as he doesn't put much stock in existing Hawaiian culture and tends to forget about the people currently living there.
• Color Character: Silver Sword.
• Cool Helmet: His shiny silvery mahiole.
• Recurring Character: Recurring villain through the early part of the series.

Queen Nosferata

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #50 (1998)

Nosferata is a Wild Lander with big plans for her own advancement and her own army separate from that of the Royals.

• Beast Folk: She's got a lot of bat traits, but her only noticeable hair is the long stuff on top of her head.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Her eyes are portrayed as either solid black or solid blue.
• Slouch of Villainy: She's first introduced leaning back in her carved stone throne as she listens to a minion's report.

Kossak the Slaver

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #75 (2000)

An extraterrestrial slave trader with a ship nearly as big as the earth.

• Irony: He was once a slave on the very slave ship he now runs as a particularly cruel slave trader before he managed to overthrow the previous master.
• Self-Disposing Villain: He, maybe, atomizes himself rather than be caught. Superboy wonders if he actually teleported instead, either way he's never seen again.

Sidearm

????

Created By: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummett

First Appearance: Superboy (Vol. 4) #1 (1994)

Superboy's first villain. A bank robber who possesses a "technovest" with modular robot arms (one at a time). He later appeared as part of the Suicide Squad, where King Shark killed him for trying to shoot Detective Makoa in the back.

• Alas, Poor Villain: Gets eaten by King Shark in the Suicide Squad storyline.
• Berserk Button: Does not like Superboy getting his name wrong.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: His increasing frustration with Superboy is easy to understand, especially since someone whose superpower is mechanical and (usually) lacks a range attack is the worst person to be fighting Superboy — in their first battle (told in flashback in the zero issue) Kon destroyed his arm with tactile telekinesis before he even knew he had tactile telekinesis.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Sidearm was equipped with a special cybernetic vest equipped with modular appendages capable of increasing his strength to superhuman levels.
• Plug 'n' Play Technology: Presumably his own arms are designed to plug in and out of the vest, but he also steals Professor Hamilton's prosthetic and it connects without any difficulty.
• Shoulder Cannon: One of the Tecnovest's mountings is multi-barreled cannon mounted behind his right shoulder.

Luis Rojas

First Appearance: Superman L Son of Kal-El (Vol. 1) #18 (1994)

Jon Kent's own Expy of Lex Luthor, he is a young teenager who launches a campaign against Kryptonians with the help of Luthor.

Dominator X

Species: Dominator

Creators: Kenny Porter, Jahnoy Lindsay

First Appearance: Superboy: The Man Of Tomorrow #1

• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: X is colored purple to distinguish him from the rest of his species, who are usually yellow.

Cyborg Superboy

Travv

Species: Daxamite (formerly), Human/Kryptonian hybrid (cyborg)

Creators: Kenny Porter, Jahnoy Lindsay

First Appearance: Superboy: The Man Of Tomorrow #1, #5 (as Cyborg Superboy)

• Blessed with Suck: This is what Travv thinks of his technopathy, since the augmentation cost whatever powers he would have developed as a Daxamite.
• Brain Uploading: When Travv's initial fight with Superboy destroys his original body, Travv's cybernetic spine transfers his consciousness into a cybernetically augmented clone body of Conner, becoming Cyborg Superboy.
• Child Soldier: Travv was genetically engineered by Dominator X as a weapon to be sold to the highest bidder.
• Lack of Empathy: Travv is more than willing to use his fellow genetic experiments as weapons against Dominator X.